I had this issue too and used BetterTouchBar to remove all buttons except for a big ESC in the upper left. (I show the system Touch Bar if I hit the fn key, so

I had this issue too and used BetterTouchBar to remove all buttons except for a big ESC in the upper left. (I show the system Touch Bar if I hit the fn key, so I can still control brightness and volume.) Unfortunately BTB is buggy and occasionally stops hiding buttons, but it’s the best solution I’ve found so far.